Research on the network structure and gender/age differences of psychological safety among urban residents: Network analysis based on a large sample

Abstract

Psychological safety as the key to mental health, not only affects individual happiness and quality of life but also relates to social stability and harmony. However, psychological safety is complex and multidimensional, with unclear internal structures and influencing factors and insufficient research on gender and age differences. Therefore, in-depth exploration of its core dimensions and network structure is crucial for formulating effective mental health strategies and enhancing residents' sense of psychological security. A survey was conducted on 9,282 urban residents using the Psychological Safety Scale. Using R version 4.3.2 for network estimation, centrality estimation, accuracy and stability estimation, and network comparison. The results found that the expected influence index of the general sense of safety (GS) dimension is always the highest in the total network and networks of different genders and ages. The network comparison results show that there are significant gender and age differences in the dimensions/item networks of psychological safety. There are connections between trust (TU) and relaxation (RE), excitement (EX), and calmness (CA) in the dimension network of male samples (ps